A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

Director:

Jack Sholder

Writers:

David Chaskin (written by) and
Wes Craven (characters)

Release Date:

1 November 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Fantasy | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

The first name in terror returns...

Plot:

A teenage boy is haunted in his dreams by Freddy Krueger who is out to possess him to continue his murdering in the real world.

Plot Keywords:

Nightmare | Teenage Boy | Freddy Krueger | Dream | Neighbor

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Mark Patton	...	Jesse Walsh
Kim Myers	...	Lisa Webber
Robert Rusler	...	Ron Grady
Clu Gulager	...	Ken Walsh
Hope Lange	...	Cheryl Walsh
Marshall Bell	...	Coach Schneider
Melinda O. Fee	...	Mrs. Webber
Tom McFadden	...	Mr. Webber (as Thom McFadden)
Sydney Walsh	...	Kerry
Robert Englund	...	Freddy Krueger
Edward Blackoff	...	Biology Teacher
Christie Clark	...	Angela Walsh
Lyman Ward	...	Mr. Grady
Donna Bruce	...	Mrs. Grady
Hart Sprager	...	Teacher
Allison Barron	...	Girl on Bus
JoAnn Willette	...	Girl on Bus
Steve Eastin	...	Policeman
Brian Wimmer	...	Do-Gooder
Robert Chaskin	...	Bar-B-Que Boy
Kerry Remsen	...	Girlfriend
Kimberly Lynn	...	Patty
Steven Smith	...	Victim
Jonathan Hart	...	Spike

Directed by
Jack Sholder

Writing credits
David Chaskin		(written by)
Wes Craven		characters

Produced by
Stephen Diener	....	executive producer
Stanley Dudelson	....	executive producer
Michael S. Murphey	....	line producer
Sara Risher	....	co-producer
Robert Shaye	....	producer
Joel Soisson	....	line producer

Original Music by
Christopher Young

Cinematography by
Jacques Haitkin
Christopher Tufty

Film Editing by
Bob Brady
Arline Garson

Art Direction by
Maggie Martin

Costume Design by
Gail Viola

Makeup Department
Wendy Hogan	....	assistant makeup artist
Daniel Marc	....	makeup artist
Bart Mixon	....	special makeup effects artist
Robin L. Neal	....	hair stylist
Mark Shostrom	....	transformation effects creator
Kevin Yagher	....	makeup and effects creator: Freddy Krueger
Kevin Yagher	....	special makeup effects

Production Management
Rachel Talalay	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Whitney R. Hunter	....	second assistant director
Marshall D. Moore	....	third assistant director
Mark Shostrom	....	co-director second unit: transformation sequence (uncredited)

Sound Department
Larry Porche	....	boom operator
Ed White	....	sound mixer

Special Effects by
Richard Albain	....	special mechanical effects
Paul Boyington	....	special effects
Rick Lazzarini	....	special puppet effects creator
Ron Nary	....	special mechanical effects
Kevin Yagher	....	special effects

Visual Effects by
Oded Beckman	....	miniatures
Paul Boyington	....	special visual effects designer and director
Richard Delaney	....	effects animator
Loring Doyle	....	effects animator
Bridget Endman	....	effects animator
John M. Gonzalez	....	live action
Paul Huston	....	miniatures
Darius Khadjenouri	....	miniatures
Ian Kincaid	....	live action
Michael Litterback	....	live action
Wes Takahashi	....	effects animator

Stunts
Dan Bradley	....	stunt coordinator
Dan Bradley	....	stunts
Scott Alan Cook	....	stunts
Christopher Doyle	....	stunts (as Chris Doyle)
Marneen Fields	....	stunt performer
Frank Lloyd	....	stunts
Ray Lykins	....	stunts
C.J. McBeath	....	stunts
Denney Pierce	....	stunts (as Denny Pierce)
Ray Shaffer	....	stunts
Lane Leavitt	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Matt Gulbin	....	grips carpenter
Christopher Tufty	....	director of photography: additional photography

Other crew
John Blake	....	assistant: Mark Shostrom
Tom Calderaro	....	synthesizer programmer
Bundy Chanock	....	set medic
Wendy Cooke	....	assistant: Kevin Yagher
Earl Ellis	....	assistant: Kevin Yagher
Glenn Gaylord	....	assistant accountant
Bart Mixon	....	assistant: Mark Shostrom
Luc G. Nicknair	....	production assistant
Gregor Punchatz	....	assistant: Mark Shostrom
Anthony Showe	....	assistant: Mark Shostrom
Jayson Wall	....	film restoration coordinator (2002 restoration)
Don Wyse	....	fire safety

Production Companies

• New Line Cinema (presents)
• Heron Communications (presents)
• Smart Egg Pictures (presents)
• Second Elm Street Venture (copyright owner)
• Media Home Entertainment (uncredited)

Distributors

• New Line Cinema (1985) (USA) (theatrical)
• Succéfilm AB (Sweden) (theatrical)
• Alliance Atlantis Home Video (Canada) (VHS)
• Creswin Distribution (Canada)
• Image Entertainment (laserdisc)
• Media Home Entertainment (1986) (USA) (VHS)
• New Line Home Video
• Video Treasures (1996) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Communications Company

Other Companies

• Clairmont Camera  camera equipment provided by

Also Known As:

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (Australia)
A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2 (USA) (closing credits title)
A Hora do Pesadelo Parte 2: A Vingança de Freddy (Brazil) [pt]
Efialtis sto dromo me tis lefkes No 2 (Greece) [el]
Koszmar z ulicy Wiazów 2: Zemsta Freddy'ego (Poland) [pl]
La revanche de Freddy (France) [fr]
Nightmare 2 - Die Rache (West Germany) [de]
Nightmare II: la rivincita (Italy) [it]
Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2 Freddy's Wraak (Belgium: English title) (festival title) [en]
Painajainen Elm Streetillä 2 - Fred (Finland) [fi]
Painajainen Elm Streetillä 2 - Freddyn kosto (Finland) [fi]
Pesadilla 2: La venganza de Freddy (Argentina) [es]
Pesadilla en Elm Street 2: la venganza de Freddy (Spain) [es]
Terror på Elm Street 2 (Sweden) [sv]
Terror på Elm Street 2 - Freddys hämnd (Sweden) [sv]

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:MA (re-rating 2005) | Australia:MA (DVD rating) | Australia:M (TV rating) | Iceland:16 | Australia:R | Canada:18+ (Quebec) | Netherlands:16 | Singapore:M18 | Argentina:18 | Australia:R (original rating) | Canada:R | Finland:K-18 | France:-12 | Mexico:C | Norway:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R | West Germany:18

Filming Locations:

1428 N. Genesee Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

New Line Cinema

Trivia:

Cameo: [Robert Shaye]the S&M bartender.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the opening scene text on the school bus varies between SCHOOLBUS and SCHOOL BUS.

Quotes:

Jesse Walsh: Hey, Grady, do you remember your dreams?
Ron Grady: Only the wet ones.
Coach Schneider: No talking!

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in License to Drive (1988)

Soundtrack:

Whisper to a Scream

At least it had the guts to be a bit different...

Now that Nightmare is up to seven or eight sequels, while Friday The 13th is up to ten (and counting), it must be hard to look back on the days when horror films tried to be vaguely original or even different. With all the Screams and I Know What Your Breasts Did Last Summers, making Freddy's Revenge in these "enlightened" days would be just about impossible.

But culture, and particularly youth culture, in the 1980s was considerably different, certainly far less conservative and anti-creative. In those days, The Cure were a big thing, and even the most basic of pop sludge was far more creative than what we have today. Not to mention that it was far easier to make dodgy films and get them released theatrically.

A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 2 picks up five years after the original, although it was a rush-job filmed less than a year after said original was out of the theatre. The film company, at that time the independent startup known as New Line, saw a quick and easy meal ticket that only required them to convince Robert Englund to submerge himself in what looks like three tons of multi-coloured latex. So the idea of a decent script, decent actors, or decent photography, went right out the window.

Which is kind of sad, really, when you consider that this is the only Freddy film in which an original premise is used. You might want to skip the rest of this paragraph if you have yet to see it. In it, a young man (whose behaviour is consistent with repressed homosexuality, in one of those hilarious plot coincidences) has just moved into the house from which Nancy originally dealt with Freddy. With the help of the sort of girlfriend any other male (and even some females) of this age would want to climb atop of at every opportunity, our hero attempts to fight off Freddy (and his own gayness), which in turn creates some very interesting plot devices. The moment when our heroine is holding up a carving knife at Freddy, who gives her a graphic and terrifying demonstration of the fact that she'll kill her (confused) lover if she kills Freddy, could have been one of the most horrific moments in the entire series. I am not quite convinced that it isn't, given that the only other episode in the series that was vaugely adult after this point was Part 3.

Unfortunately, the actors hired for these roles cannot act their way out of a wet paper bag. The only cast member with acting skills that even compare to Robert Englund's would be Marshall Bell. I am convinced that his turn here as the (gay) gym teacher was what got him hired to be in Total Recall and StarShip Troopers. Mark Patton (no relation to the Mike Patton who leads Mr. Bungle or the Mike Patton who was an early cast member in You Can't Do That On Television) is terrible - his only talent, as such, is to scream like a seventy-year-old woman. The actors who play his family look as if they belong on a cheap knock-off of Family Ties. The best actor in the whole piece was the budgie, who seemed to decide he would rather explode than be in this idiotic film a second longer.

When all is said and done, Robert Louis Stevenson said it much better in The Frightening Tale Of Doctor Jekyll And Mister Hyde (although there are no shortage of adaptations to that work which suck more than this). Normally, I would give this effort a three out of ten, but it gets two bonus points because it is like no other episode in the Nightmare canon, and that is a damned good thing when you put it alongside episodes four through seven.